Chill Night

After a wild and crazy weekend, it was nice to have a calm evening tonight. But I swear it has gotten even COLDER! We spent 2 weeks in Montana last January and I swear it was never this cold!

I headed to the Healthy Happier Bear HQ to rendezvous with Ashley for a manicure this afternoon.

He sure looks healthy and happy!

She swears that the only things that are cheap in NYC are dry cleaners, housekeepers and manicures. For ten bucks, this was quite a treat. Theodora met us to make three’s company!

After our girls’ outing, I met back up with Matt and Snake, the last two standing. Thankfully they did not have alcohol on their breath when I greeted them.

We chilled (literally) in a bar for about an hour with Larbs and shared a few drinks

And then we parted ways and Matt and I went on a romantic Big City Date! Our restaurant du jour was Apiary, and we had a fantastic experience.

We pondered the menu over chewy sourdough. It featured a 3-course-for-$35 deal going on and considering most entrees in this city are upwards of $25 and most salads the same price, this was like getting a salad and dessert for free!

I had my finger on the salmon but switched to the Organic Chicken with Peas and Lemon at the last minute – it was really good, but I enjoyed the mashed potatoes, peas and flavors more than the chicken itself, which is always boring to me. Poultry is best on Thanksgiving.

My “free” dessert was a Blackberry Crust – kind of a cross between a cookie and a muffin

After dinner we walked a few blocks to a coffee shop where we enjoyed Café au Laits and conversation with Matt’s cousin Patrick and his girlfriend Samantha. It was great to see them, even for a short time. My cousin lives here too but we just missed each other.

I would have loved to have done more walking this weekend, but my gosh it’s so cold. I am normally in favor of walking everywhere but even my trusty down coat couldn’t take the chill out tonight. Too many cab rides on this trip. We need to come back in the late spring!

That dinner looks super delicious!
And manicures are so fun, I just get angry when they start chipping so soon. Instead I end up doing them myself and getting angry that they look awful. It’s a catch22 I guess… 😉

When we visited NYC over New Years we ate at Blue Hill. Have you been there? I thought of you since its a sustainable farm to table food and it was hands down the most incredible meal. You can taste how fresh everything is! Apiary sounds wonderful.

Perhaps I was painting with too broad of a stroke, but it was not meant to be taken literally. I live in NY, and even if there are some great food and entertainment deals now and then, they don’t make up for the actual cost of living, which makes everything, including dining out and entertainment, more expensive dollar-for-dollar. You have to take all of the variables into consideration: Our state income tax and sales tax and gas tax and soaring health insurance and car insurance premiums–I could go on and on. So even if you can be entertained and eat rather cheaply, it’s a challenge to live cheaply anywhere in NY with the state-imposed costs of living burdening residents. The high cost of living is the driving force that has residents moving out of state at rapid rates. Unfortunately, most people cannot live by restaurant deals alone.

Possibly it felt colder in NYC because it’s damper, more humid. The prairies (Montana) have a drier climate, even in winter, so the cold doesn’t sink into your bones the way it does on the damper east coast.

Okay, now I’m officially nervous. If NYC is this cold, I can’t even imagine Montreal… To which I’m going in exactly two weeks! Looks like I’ll be making a trip out to Burlington coat factory today to pick up a few extra layers! 😉

haha… after 6 years in Chicago where I mostly walked/took the train (thus waiting outside for various lengths of time), I found all the tricks for dealing with freezing temps. In Jan it’s normal for the high to be in only the teens for weeks on end, with crazy windchills and having to trek through mounds of snow and slush – ugh. Basically my strategy involves many many layers ~ tights under my jeans, plus thick knee high socks, plus boots, layered long sleeve tees and sweaters (yes, I would wear a sweater on top of another sweater!), warm woolly scarf/hat/gloves, and down coat. I managed to find things that looked sort of cute too.. that was when I knew I’d mastered the northern winter So, that was normal for me and I did it every day, and wasn’t cold when walking around. But it’s a pain and means lots of laundry.

Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying the VA winter SO much ~ even the cold days here would be considered the warm days in CHI. I don’t miss all that bundling at all!

despite the cold, looks like a fun trip! have to say that I do miss city life… the hustle and bustle is so energizing

I’m actually moving out of the city this week, but I’ll definitely be back to visit once i return from my travels! Seeing how much you did, and how many people you got to see in one wknd gives me hope… Sometimes you end up doing more in a visit than when you actually live here!

I’d venture to say that the difference between the “Montana cold” and cold in other parts of the country is the humidity. Montana has very low humidity as opposed to NY, therefore, 20 degrees in MT will feel a lot different than 20 degrees with humidity. Then again, as a native Montanan, 30 degrees below zero is only “a little chilly.” 😉 Looks like a great trip!

I have been experiencing the same cold freeze here in Southern Ontario…I am very close to Toronto! Even with the sun out, it is the wind chill factor that will get ya all the time! On top of that my boys had pratcially back to back hockey games…dinner broke them up…thank goodness for steaming hot portable lattes! Your dinner looked fantastic! I believe you can tell the quality of a restaurant by the bread they serve…that bread with olive oil looked worthy of a high rating. Love the Apiary logo with the bees and flower!